Worse still, the Belgian proposal claims that end-to-end encryption is not compromised if the “upload moderation” (scanning) is done before the message is encrypted. However, this essentially demands the use of client-side scanning – a form of spyware on end-user devices. Cybersecurity experts have pointed out that client-side scanning will undermine the security of private communications and leave people vulnerable to a number of attacks by malicious actors:
“CSS by its nature creates serious security and privacy risks for all society while the assistance it can provide for law enforcement is at best problematic. There are multiple ways in which client-side scanning can fail, can be evaded, and can be abused.” – Bugs in Our Pockets, Abelson et al (2024)
Given the risk categorisation approach proposed by the Belgian government, which shockingly posits more secure and more privacy-respecting services as more dangerous, most end-to-end encrypted communication services are likely to be hit with a detection order. This will critically undermine the security of the service – which would effectively be the end of secure end-to-end encrypted communications in Europe.
There’s a reason why we’ve always said the EU needs to take a different approach. It’s because there is no way to mass scan and report on people’s private communications without violating the core of their right to privacy and creating massive security vulnerabilities. The search for a magic technical solution is doomed to fail because there is no magic solution to the serious problem of child sexual abuse – which instead requires multi-faceted societal-level and political solutions.
If EU Member States take the step of agreeing to Belgium’s new approach, they will effectively ban the sharing of pictures, videos and links in the EU by only “allowing” this type of content in private communications under mass surveillance. It might sound like an episode of Black Mirror – but unless governments stand up for our rights and scientific evidence, it could be coming to all our devices soon.
Source link : https://edri.org/our-work/be-scanned-or-get-banned/
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Publish date : 2024-05-30 07:00:00
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